A multi-subscription multi-standby communication device may include one or more Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards that provide users with access to multiple separate mobile telephony networks. Each SIM may be associated with a different service provider subscription, enabling the multi-subscription multi-standby communication device to communicate with one or more communication networks. Each SIM or subscription may also be associated with a radio access technology (RAT).
A multi-subscription communication device that includes one or more SIMs and connects to two or more separate mobile telephony networks using one or more shared radio frequency (RF) resources/radios may be termed a “multi-standby” communication device. One example of a multi-subscription multi-standby communication device is a dual-SIM-dual-standby (DSDS) communication device, which includes two SIM cards that share a set of radio frequency (RF) circuitry (referred to as an “RF chain” or a “RF resource”) to communicate with two separate mobile telephony networks on behalf of their respective subscriptions. Another example is a single-radio LTE (SRLTE) communication device, which includes one SIM card/subscription associated with two (or more) subscriptions that share a single shared RF resource to communicate with one or more multi-subscription multi-standby communication networks on behalf of the multiple subscriptions.